


Clarke x Clean Hair

by sly2o



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Fits into the Season 4 premiere, Just a cute short fic, Post-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 09:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11250411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sly2o/pseuds/sly2o
Summary: ALIE has been destroyed. Now for Clarke to clean up herself before she cleans up the next mess the Earth throws at her.





	Clarke x Clean Hair

**Author's Note:**

> A ficlet I brought over from Tumblr. The first one I wrote in over ten years. Please enjoy.

“And for your people’s sake Clarke please take a shower when you get back to Arcadia.”

The world was ending and yet somehow it was her mom’s nagging that was most top of mind for Clarke as she made the walk back to Arcadia with Bellamy and the others. Clarke was extra annoyed at herself for letting her thoughts continuously drift back to the warm showers on the Ark, so she tried to force herself to think about what steps were next to save her people from the looming radiation.

However as Clarke walked through the forest to Arkadia she subconsciously started to pick at dried blood and finger-comb her greasy, tangled hair. Eventually Clarke’s persistent scratching at her scalp was so obvious she was interrupted by a nudge from Bellamy who kindly but pointedly asked “looking forward to having a shower again?”

…

On the Ark time spent in the shower was rationed. The people of the Ark were given 3 minutes to get in and out and were only allowed to use the shower every second day. Of course there were some exceptions. Workers from farm station and mechanics whose jobs could not avoid dirt, grime, and grease were occasionally given an extra minute of shower time if they made the right appeal to the right person.

Even the Mountain Men had not let their people spend more than 4 minutes in the shower at a time. Although the Mountain Men had unlimited access to water, the effort to deradiate the water was both substantial and time consuming. Quite simply the Mountain Men’s water treatment systems could not keep up with a hundred showers that lasted too long.

In Clarke’s newly assigned, but all too familiar, standard issue Arkadia room Clarke began to undress herself. Flakes of dirt, dust, and dried blood fell to the floor alongside her clothes.

Clarke’s breath began to shorten as she felt increasingly anxious about being able to wash all of the dirt off her body in less than 3 minutes. With only 3 minutes of time Clarke would simply be able to get wet enough to be muddy, which would ruin the point of putting on clean new clothes.

“How am I going to,” Clarke started to mumble, as she looked around the room for a wash cloth, a bucket, anything to help her hand wash the dirt away, before she remembered the Ark wasn’t in space anymore.

“Oh.”

Clarke smiled to herself, feeling a rather foolish. It was hard not to get back into old Ark habits when standing in an Ark room.

However that inkling of foolishness was rapidly replaced by exhilaration as Clarke remembered that she would get to have a shower without a deadline.

…

The shower heated up as Clarke unbraided her hair. Stubbornly her hair stayed bowed and curled even when set free. As steam filled the room Clarke caught a glimpse of herself naked in the mirror. Clarke shook her head, bemused by how mismatched she looked compared to her surroundings. She had never looked anything like this when the Ark was still in space.

Stepping into the shower the familiar pressure from the shower head beat down upon Clarke’s body. Immediately the running water started to carry away the more recent dust and dirt from Clarke’s skin.

In Polis there were no showers. Everyone used a bath, which took some getting used to for Clarke. Even then Clarke had never felt comfortable enough in the bath to wash her hair. She didn’t like dunking her head underwater, and although Polis had numerous fantastic smelling soaps none of them worked quite like the shampoo she was so accustomed to using.

Unbraiding her hair had caused enough irritation in Clarke’s scalp that she immediately grabbed the shampoo after getting her hair wet.

As Clarke massaged the dollop of shampoo into her hair the dirt and scents trapped in her hair became to come loose. The steam picked up these smells and Clarke found herself awash in memories of her experiences since the day she decided to leave Polis with Octavia. 

… The blood and sweat from infiltrating Polis to rid the world of ALIE’s control…

… The salt from the sea where she had met Luna…

… The campfires with Bellamy, Jasper, and Octavia…

… Lexa’s perfumed candles…

All these scents came back one after another, mixing together, and sending Clarke through a rewind of her memories.

During all that time Clarke had been so busy trying to save her people she had never given herself the time to process her experiences - and now it was coming all at once. A mixture of sadness and anger enveloped Clarke. Her arms slowly sank away from her head as Clarke began to softly cry.

…

Out of the shower Clarke looked at herself in the mirror again. This reflection of herself did not look so out of place. Yet even though the appearances were overwhelmingly similar - the straight clean hair, the clear face - the hardness and determination in her eyes showed a changed person.

Clarke brushed her hair, grabbed a clip, and pulled her hair back into her clipped back hairstyle. Quickly she got dressed in her familiar low cut top and blue jacket before heading back out to the new command center to get updated by Raven and the others on what was next for stopping the world from ending… again.

...

As Clarke entered the new command center only Bellamy was there looking intently at the computer screens trying to decipher what Raven had left on the screen.

Bellamy immediately started into work.

“Hey, come see this I think-,”

Bellamy stopped stopped mid-sentence as he turned and saw Clarke.

Clarke raised her eyebrow. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

A beat passed, as Bellamy stood there frozen. Catching himself Bellamy shook his head before slowly adding “no.. no… It’s just...”

“What?”

“Your hair looks nice.”


End file.
